Oh, oh, oh~~ This is truly a headache-inducing opponent!"
In Seijoh's resting area, Irihata Nobuteru saw Fukurodani's morale quickly recover under Kōtarō Bokuto's influence. He couldn't help but touch his chin and slowly said.
"The opponents in the National Tournament are truly trickier one after another! To still maintain such high fighting spirit at this point is simply beyond common sense!"
"However…"
At this point, Irihata Nobuteru's tone paused slightly, then he muttered to himself, "Just fighting spirit alone won't solve the problems ahead!"
After Kōtarō Bokuto's encouragement, Fukurodani's Libero finally regained his composure.
After Akashi Asuka scored three consecutive points, his serving touch also began to decline, so his fourth serve couldn't achieve a perfect state. After the volleyball flew over the net, it was ultimately received by Fukurodani's Libero.
"Akaashi, set the ball to me!"
Although he was in the backcourt, Kōtarō Bokuto still decisively reached out to Keiji Akaashi for the ball. When the volleyball was set above Kōtarō Bokuto, Seijoh's front-court blockers quickly followed up.
Kindaichi and Matsukawa Issei reacted the fastest, almost instantly shifting horizontally to Kōtarō Bokuto's direct front and jointly setting up a block.
However, facing four tall arms, Kōtarō Bokutounhesitatingly swung his arm and unleashed an Oblique Spike.
Bang!
Slap!
Two sounds rang out simultaneously.
The first was the sound of Kōtarō Bokuto hitting the ball. The second was the sound of the volleyball hitting the block.
Matsukawa Issei touched Kōtarō Bokuto's Spike, but he couldn't completely block it. Because the side of his arm made contact with the volleyball, the ball flew directly out of bounds after hitting the block.
18:17.
Fukurodani successfully reclaimed a point.
However, facing this score, the entire Fukurodanicourt, except for Kōtarō Bokuto who was still cheerfully celebrating, not only showed no joy on anyone else's face, but instead suddenly became solemn.
Something is wrong!
As the owl caretaker, Keiji Akaashi's understanding of Kōtarō Bokuto should be the deepest in the entire team.
So he could almost confirm just now that Kōtarō Bokuto definitely wasn't aiming for an out-of-bounds touch on that ball, but simply wanted to score with an oblique shot to avoid the block.
But… Kōtarō Bokuto made a mistake!
Originally, a Spike error wasn't a big deal, as even professional players can't guarantee that every attack will be smooth. Generally, encountering such a scoring opportunity is a stroke of luck.
However, for Kōtarō Bokuto, such a mistake shouldn't exist, at least not now.
Because everyone in Fukurodani knows how powerful a hot-handed Kōtarō Bokuto is. A ball like the one just now should never have been a mistake.
So the only explanation is that Kōtarō Bokuto's touch has cooled down.
"Oh no, is it because of the continuous serves?"
Keiji Akaashi understood in an instant. At first, he also thought that the opponent bringing in that blond substitute, number 16, was simply to disrupt Fukurodani's rhythm and morale with powerful continuous serves.
But now it seems, the opponent's goal is clearly not just that. Perhaps cooling down Kōtarō Bokuto's touch is their true objective now.
Now that he thought about it, due to the continuous scoring (and losing) on serves by both sides, there had been about five or six consecutive rallies where neither side had engaged in an offense-Defense battle.
And during this process, aside from serving one ball and receiving one serve, Kōtarō Bokutohadn't participated in any Spike attacks.
Although with Kōtarō Bokuto's personality, as long as the match is intense enough, he can maintain high fighting spirit, but without touching the ball for a long time, even Kōtarō Bokuto's condition will inevitably decline slightly.
Even if the decline isn't much, in the current situation, this slight change is enough to plunge Fukurodani into an abyss of no return.
At this thought.
Several drops of cold sweat immediately appeared on Keiji Akaashi's forehead: "This time, it seems like we're really in trouble!"
...
...
[Fukurodani scores again!]
['Ace' Kōtarō Bokuto lives up to his reputation. He used a superb line Spike to once again break through Seijoh's double block, helping Fukurodani maintain a tight grip on the score.]
[However, Fukurodani's crisis has not yet been averted, because if Seijoh scores again on the next ball, then Seijoh will officially reach set point for this game.]
[And once Fukurodani loses another set, it means they will be completely eliminated from this National Tournament… ]
Match score 23:23.
It seems both sides are tied, but Seijoh still holds an offensive advantage over Fukurodani.
And this offensive advantage, in the current situation, is enough to deal a fatal blow to Fukurodani.
The Fukurodani players were panting. Kōtarō Bokuto, who had exited his hot streak, still maintained a powerful offensive capability, but he could only barely tie the score with Seijoh.
It was clearly no longer possible for him to display the overwhelming offensive power he showed at the beginning of the second set.
And because of this, the pressure on the other Fukurodani players suddenly increased significantly.
Fukurodani continued to serve.
The volleyball was passed from Seijoh's Liberoto Oikawa Tooru, and then from Oikawa Tooruto Akashi Asuka.
At this point, Fukurodani had already formed a targeted Defense against Akashi Asuka, so even though Oikawa Tooru and Akashi Asuka's cooperation was very quick, Fukurodani still formed a double block at the first opportunity.
However, the moment Akashi Asuka Spiked the volleyball, Fukurodani's two blockers watched almost wide-eyed as the volleyball strangely curved in front of them, then grazed their arms and flew behind them.
"Damn it!"
The two blockers' eyes were splitting with rage; they wished they had an extra arm to block that ball, but unfortunately, they didn't.
Thud!
The volleyball hit the ground, making a dull thud.
24:23.
Seijoh officially reached set point.
"Beep~~~"
At this moment, the referee's urgent whistle sounded. Fukurodani's coach on the sidelines finally couldn't hold back and used his last timeout of the set.
...
[Excellent!]
[Seijoh scores!]
[It's 'Ace' Akashi Asuka again! This is already the 11th point Akashi Asuka has scored in this set.]
[Such a performance makes it hard to imagine that this is Akashi Asuka's first time participating in the National Tournament, and even harder to imagine that Akashi Asuka is only a first-year.]
[And with this point, Seijoh has taken the set point for this game. So, can Fukurodani still tie the score again and achieve a comeback?]
[We'll reveal the answer after our commercial break!]